The Spotify Team

What a difference a year makes! At the end of May 2014, we reached 10 million paying subscribers and 40 million active users. Today, we have reached more than 20 million subscribers and more than 75 million active users. 10 million subscribers in our first five and a half years – and another 10 million subscribers in just a single year! That’s an average of one new subscriber every three seconds over the last year. Wow. And, more people listening on Spotify means more payouts to the creators of the music you love. As we grow, the amount of royalties we pay out to artists, songwriters and rights holders continues to climb faster than ever. We have now paid more than $3 billion USD in royalties, including more than $300 million in the first three months of 2015 alone. That’s good for music, good for music fans … and good for music makers. Take a look at what it means for four different types of artists. The blue columns show average actual payouts over the last 12 months, which started with 10 million subscribers; the green columns show our projected average payouts over the next 12 months, starting from our new baseline of 20 million paying subscribers.

We could have never achieved this growth without all of you: the music fans who listen, discover, share and celebrate music and artists every day. Thank you, 20 million X. 20 Million Reasons To Say Thanks

Father John Misty is an intense musician. Or, at least, very complicated. The project of ex-Fleet Foxes member Josh Tillman, the second LP, I Love You, Honeybear, was just released this past Tuesday. The album takes a broad, although at times unsettling close, look at love; all in Tillman’s cynical, mostly tongue-in-cheek tone.

Josh on his new album versus his debut, Fear Fun…

This album was definitely harder because I had to overcome my intense fear of being sentimental. This one is a lot more intense, a lot more vulnerable.

The album cover really articulates what the new album is. It’s an encounter with intimacy and what comes from that… what qualities manifest. Here it was a lot of jealousy and neediness. I kind of turned this woman into a sacred object instead of letting her be a human.

On “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.”…

You have these two pretentious, misguided people. One of which is me. Obviously. It’s really important to me that this song isn’t a figurative kind of thing. No, this is about a thing that happened. What am I doing there? What did I want? Really I just wanted my narcissism and vanity fed. I wanted to be around people who didn’t demand any intimacy out of me.

On “Bored In The USA”…

If nothing else it’s a way for polite, white liberal people to point at a straw man version of the grotesque American. If you can’t see yourself in any part of that song then it’s not a good song.

On love and his wife, Emma…

Intimacy and love is not a passive, consumer experience. You have to make it for yourself.

It feels like NERVO is on top of the world. Or maybe that’s just the effect of their huge, new House anthem (aptly called “It Feels”). The Australian duo, made up of sisters Mim and Liv Nervo, just released the track for an exclusive two week pre-stream on Spotify.

We asked the endlessly busy group to sit down and respond to our pressing questions about their life, such as, “What’s it like DJing next to your sister every night for the past decade?” They were kind enough to give us some answers…

Liv: Mostly it’s nothing but positivity and having good time. Though sometimes, it can get a bit sticky. We have slight arguments about what to play next, but we pretty much love it… We usually plan the beginning and the end of every set, then in the middle we just play whatever the crowd is vibing to the most!

What differences do the two of you have, in terms of musical taste?

Liv: We both generally like and can see the beauty in most music, from a range of genres. Though Mim might bring me something from the deep house world, that I love and have never heard, or vice versa. Mim tends to lean towards the deep house world, while I like more of the tech house grooves.

The night was surely unpredictable but also, unforgettable. From Beck’s huge win, performances that ranged from Hozier to Paul McCartney and everything that makes Music’s Biggest Night always a must watch.

Beck came home with Album of the Year and is already at 18 million streams and counting… The list of winners includes the best of the best with another well-known star showing up numerous times: Sam Smith. Whether it was Pharrell’s symphonic rendition of ‘Happy’ or Katy Perry’s emotional performance, the evening surely lived up to the hype.

Record of the Year: Sam Smith – “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”

Song of the Year: Sam Smith – “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”

Album of the Year: Beck – “Morning Phase”

Best New Artist: Sam Smith

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: A Great Big World With Christina Aguilera – “Say Something”

Ever find yourself endlessly browsing through playlist after playlist, looking for the perfect music? “Teen Party” or “Party Hits”… how do you decide without listening?

Well, good news. Now, with Touch Preview, you can quickly get a sneak peek of any playlist, song, album or artist before you hit play. Just hold down your finger to the screen – you’ll instantly hear the music start.

And you can now save tunes you like to Your Music with one quick left-swipe. Building your collection of favourite songs has never been easier or faster.

It means less time looking for the perfect music, and more time actually listening to it.

Oh look, here’s a nice video we made.

Both Touch Preview and our new swipe gestures are available to iOS users from today, and will soon be rolled out across other platforms.

Today we’re bringing Windows Phone users the best-looking Spotify ever. With a darker theme, refreshed typography and rounded iconography, playing your favourite music has never looked so good. Our new design makes accessing your favourite music smoother than ever before. The new dark theme and refined interface lets the content come forward and ‘pop’, just like in a cinema when you dim the lights.

We also know that you’ve been looking for more ways of managing your music. So today we’re bringing Your Music to Windows Phone: helping you save, organise and browse your favourite music the way you want to. Save albums and browse their beautiful cover art, gather your favourite artists and create playlists for every mood and moment. Found a song or album that you like? Just hit save to add it to your collection. It’s that simple.

We’re also bringing you our updated Browse feature, delivering even more relevant and localised content. So regardless of whether you’re looking for something to fall asleep to, or the perfect playlist to get you geared up for your big night out, finding the right music for every moment is easier than ever.

Our new design, Your Music and the updated Browse will roll out to all Windows Phone 8 users starting today.

One out of every five Spotify streams comes from a user listening to another user’s music. Every day, millions of listeners find, discover and share music on Spotify – but a great recommendation from someone you trust is something special.

What if you could tap into all these moments of discovery and see what your friends have been listening to?

Today we’re launching new discovery features that make it easier than ever to tap into your friends’ latest music picks.

Top Tracks in Your Network is a new chart showing the most played songs among the people you follow. The more popular a song is with your friends, the higher it is up the chart. Refreshed daily, the new chart can be found in the Browse section under Top Lists. A drop down list of the people listening to the song can be found next to the track details.

Now, when you go to an artist or album you’ll see who’s been listening – a great way to discover which of your friends share your taste in music.

Top Tracks in Your Network begins rolling out today on iOS and Android platforms, and to desktop soon.

Today we welcome Berlin’s mighty Rammstein to Spotify with six exclusive and brilliant albums. So, to get us all in the mood, here are 15 facts you really ought to know about this outrageous rock band.

Rammstein emerged from East Germany’s renegade D.I.Y. punk scene.

They’re named after the German word for “battering ram” and a town infamous as the location for a 1988 air-show tragedy where 80 people were killed.

They once proclaimed, “All we want to do is entertain. With flamethrowers.”

During live versions of “Bück Dich” (“Bend down”) singer Till Lindemann would drop his trousers to reveal a huge dildo through which he would then spray white liquid over the front rows.

They are as brilliantly, uniquely German as Kraftwerk, Neu! and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Rammstein’s debut CD single, “Du Riechst So Gut” (“You smell so good”) first appeared in as a perfumed digipak.

Tickets sold out in only thirty minutes for Rammstein’s legendary performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Lindemann’s other most famous on-stage prop was his 140 pound metal coat that was covered in flammable paste and set on fire.

World-renowned director David Lynch put two Rammstein songs in his film Lost Highway.

They are the only German-speaking band to ever crack the US market.

The song “Mein Teil” (“My Part”) was inspired by the case of a German cannibal who posted an ad asking for a volunteer to be killed and eaten.

Rammstein was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the Grammy Awards in 1999 and 2006.

The former head of their record label described them as, “theatre for the millennium generation: metallic-techno posing with bizarre sado-masochistic elements…”

Fittingly, the band’s motto is, “Do your own thing – and overdo it!”

Keyboardist “Flake” once said, “We like audiences to grapple with our music”, so what are you waiting for?

Big news everyone! We’ve teamed up with our friends at Uber to let you choose the soundtrack for your ride.

When you request a car, you’ll be able to choose the music you want to hear on the journey. When your ride arrives, it’ll be your tunes on the car’s speakers.

So how does it work?

Connect your Spotify account from the Uber Profile screen or sign up.

Request a ride in the Uber app. If you get matched with a music-enabled Uber, the music bar will appear at the bottom of the Uber app.

Tap the music bar and select music from our ready-made playlist, your playlists or search for something new.

If you want you can wirelessly control the music from either the Uber or Spotify apps until you arrive at your destination.

Sit back and enjoy the soundtrack to your ride.

The new Uber and Spotify integration, available to all Uber and Spotify Premium users on iOS and Android (with a limited feature set), starts rolling out on Friday, Nov. 21 in our 10 launch cities. The integration will continue to roll out globally over the coming weeks.

To kick off our exciting new partnership, Spotify and Uber are giving fans a chance to connect with some of their favourite artists in 10 global launch cities:

These special events for Uber and Spotify users – including artist ride-alongs and exclusive live sessions in five of the 10 cities – will take place on Friday, November 21. Stay tuned for additional details.